In the opulent banquet hall filled with the brilliant glow of hundreds of candles on a huge chandelier, the silver cutlery and crystal plates emitted a dazzling shine. A champagne tower glistened like a mound of gold, and the smooth silk tablecloth hung down. The men's shoes were polished to a shine, and the women's high heels were studded with gemstones and pearls.
Extravagant skirts swayed like the curtain of a galaxy, as steps followed to the jaunty tunes. Faint points of light revolved around the ties and the edges of the skirts as the tall Bruce gently wrapped his arm around Selina's waist, spinning with her on the dance floor.
At first glance, they were the most compatible couple on the dance floor. Handsome Bruce was all suited up and his towering stature exuded masculine charm at all times. Although Catwoman was rather petite, her figure was very smooth. Years of exercise had given her smoother muscle lines compared to other women. The fishtail skirt studded with diamond sparkles accentuated her sexy silhouette. On her exposed neck, she wore a necklace made of pink diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires. The dazzling diamond lights made Selina the most conspicuous presence on the dance floor.
However, that's only on the surface, because as Catwoman stepped into such a social occasion for the first time, it was not possible for her just to dance.
"Take your eyes off..." Bruce whispered into her ear, "It's very impolite to stare at others like this."
"I adore the string of pearls on her wrist, especially the largest one. What a fascinating gloss." Catwoman blinked her big eyes, staring intently at the string of pearl bracelets on the wrist of another lady in the dance hall.
Just as Bruce wanted to dissuade her further, Catwoman turned her gaze away and stared at Bruce instead. Selina had a pair of beautiful green eyes that were more rich and pure than the emeralds around her neck. When gazed at with such eyes, Bruce's mind went blank. The words at his lips were swallowed and changed to, "...If you like pearls, I can give you a string too."
Catwoman said, "I know, you're just trying to stop me from stealing them. Okay, although I didn't really listen to whatever party rules you mentioned earlier, I also know not to steal anything here..."
Bruce was about to be moved to tears, his struggles with this feline creature were simply devastating.
Firstly, Catwoman was a girl from the slums and was still young, and her acts of theft were mostly confined to Gotham City, and she had never been to a high-class party before.
No cat would like to wear uncomfortable high heels and a fishtail skirt that hinders movement. Simply convincing her to dress up had almost exhausted all of Bruce's eloquence. As a result, the first fishtail skirt that was worn was ripped because Selina took too big of a step.
In the end, Bruce had to tell Selina that the dress was worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars, and all the gemstones on it were expensive natural ones. This finally stopped her from ruining any similar outfits with her dazzling acrobatic skills.
Next, she had not worn the necklace around her neck for more than ten minutes when one of the gemstones disappeared. Bruce didn't even see how Catwoman picked off that gemstone. After persuading her for dozens of minutes along with the jeweler and the fashion consultant, Selina finally let a complete necklace rest on her neck.
Catwoman had beautiful and sexy black hair. During her previous thefts, she would usually gather her hair and wrap it up inside the hood, rarely taking proper care of it, causing it to always be a bit messy. During the hairdressing process, she would rise from her chair seven times within ten minutes, and Bruce had to constantly sit by her side.
Having finally got everything ready, while traveling to the venue in a luxury car, Catwoman was restless, unable to sit still. Bruce, who originally sat in the passenger seat, had to join her in the back seat to stop her from throwing out all the wine in the car fridge due to her excitement and impatience.
Arriving at the venue, let's not even mention how Catwoman was constantly staring at all kinds of jewelry on the other ladies. Bruce was extremely worried, fearing that the jewelry might just disappear in the blink of an eye when he was not paying attention.
Only then did Bruce realize that whatever Catwoman suffered from was not just kleptomania. She definitely had other mental issues. She was just too much like a real cat, both in terms of behavior and psychological state.
However, Catwoman was quite interested in becoming a celebrity, because in her view, once she became a star, she could hang all those gemstones on her body and show their beauty to the world.
Nevertheless, the road to Catwoman's growth was still very long.
While Catwoman and Bruce had their skirmishes, the mob was busy with its own affairs. After Gotham City had been bustling with large-scale construction for a while, hundreds of warehouses sprung up overnight. Although this was a good thing, it also brought some problems.
Originally, the urban planning of Gotham City was devised by the earliest builders, i.e., the first generation of the Court of Owls. After Falcone took over the city, the Godfather remodeled Gotham City according to the urban planning of the Roman district. Wayne Enterprises had always had a tacit understanding with Falcone, so the urban area peripheral to Gotham City was also planned by them.
The current problem was that suddenly there were so many additional warehouses, including new facilities erected by all trades and industries, like rest stops for truck drivers, temporary roadside restaurants, loading and unloading points at docks, new gas stations, etc. These buildings, because they were hastily constructed and followed no planning regulations, meant Gotham City's urban planning started to become somewhat unreasonable.
The mob bosses would typically build a warehouse and its accompanying facilities wherever they had obtained land. Another boss would do the same. Hence, it led to a situation where many facilities that were in fact close to each other ended up being duplicated. Conversely, smaller warehouses in far-off places lacked these facilities, resulting in drivers and other personnel having to drive further to find these facilities, thus adding more traffic pressure.
This resulted in the disruption of Gotham City's entire logistics planning system. They were unable to calculate the most optimal route because of the inadequate planning of basic facilities. Victor was at his wit's end, and he couldn't come up with a standard solution even after pulling out all the stops.
After running for a while, the precision and efficiency of logistics remained in a chaotic state. The once meticulously planned urban environment by the Falcone and Wayne families was ruined by the forest-like warehouses and growing night markets.
The main contradiction in Gotham city currently involves the insatiable demand for physical infrastructure brought about by rapid economic growth, which couldn't be met by the outdated city structure.
To accommodate this revitalization of capitalism, Gotham City urgently needs a major reconstruction.
You might ask, does Gotham city have the power to rebuild? Of course, it does. Falcone has ruled Gotham city for many years; he must have accumulated some capital, not to mention the Wayne Enterprises. Even if the Twelve Families chip in together, it would be sufficient to rebuild this city.
But the issue is, they have the money but no one to spend it on. The city planning experts they brought in all shook their heads. Even under the threat of guns from the mob, all agreed that the required planning went beyond the capabilities of normal people.
Some experts did produce plans, but no plan could satisfy everyone. They lacked aesthetics or functionality. Neither Falcone nor Wayne Enterprises were willing to sacrifice aesthetics. They were farsighted and knew that one day, their industries would have to upgrade and transform. The aesthetics of the city's architecture would be of help eventually.
After passing the problem around, it landed back at Shiller's feet.
Lately, Shiller has been preoccupied with another matter. He anticipated that the Court of Owls would cause issues when the Talons sought him out. However, he has been baffled ever since. He tried using his connections and resources to trace the court's whereabouts but found nothing suspicious regarding the Talons.
Remember, once Shiller unleashes his Gray Mist, he can gather meticulously detailed information. Despite sweeping through half of Gotham city in the recent days, he discovered nothing.
This intrigued him. He was not concerned about enemies leaving clues but more worried about their complete disappearance, which might be part of a plot.
Once the Court of Owls had taken action, it is unreasonable for them to retreat midway. Shiller believed that he might not be the only target, but everyone who played a vital role in the reforms of Gotham.
Therefore, before initiating the plan, Shiller prepared these individuals for possible assassination attempts from the Court of Owls.
However, bafflingly – the Court of Owls' people have vanished!
None of the Talons' traces were spotted, not even an owl's feather. What is happening with the Court of Owls? Did they drop Gotham and collectively go on vacation?
Having not entirely resolved the issue relating to the Court of Owls, Shiller is hesitant about reconstructing Gotham. He knew that the Court has historically incorporated mysterious metal into the structures of Gotham that caused the city to grow progressively darker and crazier. Shiller once sampled several Gotham city structures and found nothing out of ordinary but could not perfectly identify the mysterious substance.
Beginning the significant reconstruction of Gotham city would undoubtedly affect the core interests of the Court of Owls, leading to their fierce countermeasures. If they do not prepare thoroughly, there could be significant losses among the key figures of this reform.
However, other family leaders, including Bruce and Falcone, believed that Shiller, who decisively presented a reform plan, was not the type to hesitate.
This time, his hesitation showed there might be some things that they haven't noticed, gradually slowing down the momentum of the swift reconstruction process.
On the other hand, Catwoman was aspiring to become a celebrity. Still, she found the courses tedious, and Bruce was scrutinizing her strictly. He was afraid she would steal things and offend people.
To free herself from the predicament, she took advantage of an opportunity to sneak out one day.
However, her sneaky move did not escape Butler Alfred's attention. Bruce was informed immediately and sent people to find her. Catwoman was not ready to return yet, ending up running into a sewer to escape from the people chasing her.